This chart, from Fox News, pointed out by left-of-center media watchdog,MediaMatters.org is all the rage in the liberal tweet-o-sphere today. The assertion is that Fox News is yet again lying about statistics, this time by taking liberties with how you plot points on a line.
First off, you never know with these things -- maybe Fox is doing a segment on bad graphs! I wrote Media Matters and asked them for the video segment, and they provided it within a few minutes. Here it is:
So yes, confirmed, Fox was doing something on unemployment, not on bad graphs, and they posted a blatantly inaccurate graph on the air that was easily catchable by anybody with an editorial bone in their body. And no, Fox News posting anti-administration news on its website and cable news network is not surprising. For many people, this is the kind of thing that drives people into a frenzy. They make movies about it, and build organizations like Media Matters, and tell all their friends that Fox News is a lying network.
The thing is, how many of these conversations actually change minds? How many times have you had your annual Thanksgiving discussion with relatives that watch Fox News, shown them a graph like this, and had your familial Fox News viewer say "You know, you're right. They are liars. I'll stop watching Fox News. Thank you so much for showing me this graph."
It never happens.
A great deal of the Information Diet is about Fox's chairman, Roger Ailes and what he's done to the media market. By realizing that cable provided more selection than what broadcast TV was able to provide, he invested in entertainment and affirmation over a newsroom. And if you take a look at how Fox spends its money, you'll see that holds true. But it's not primarily because there's some conservative conspiracy -- it's because opinions and celebrity anchors sell better than hard-hitting journalism and strong newsrooms.
In other words: Fox News is a lot like fried chicken. We all know it's terrible for us, but we eat it because it tastes so good. Even in the face of death, many people keep eating fried chicken, and KFC keeps making it. Simply telling someone to not to eat fried chicken probably won't solve the problem either: while they may stop eating fried chicken, they'll just turn to ice cream for their fix instead. The only thing that really works is convincing people to have a healthy lifestyle. Cable News is not part of any healthy lifestyle, and I'm convinced in the next few years we'll start figuring out that junk information can kill you just as quickly as junk food can.
What's more, Fox wins when you expose their lies. If you look at some of Brendan Nyhan's work, for instance, you'll find that by showing people who already believe in Fox News a graph like this, they become more attached to Fox, not less. Their resolve is strengthened, not weakened.
Government protects us from toxic food, but it cannot protect us from toxic information. The best thing most of us can do to combat this kind of media (which MSNBC is guilty of too, sometimes) is not to complain about Fox (or the rest of the cable news networks), but to ignore it. To eliminate its existence from your information diet. Drawing attention to Fox's incredulity only makes Fox more powerful, even if the facts are on your side.
